We had good convos about things deep and silly. Us vollies seem a little tired (most of us started roughly at the same time). We have all hit our 'walls' at points along the way of this marathon existence in Africa, so its good to re-energise from simple pleasures like conversation, a nice meal and smoking (in my case coughing and spluttering) on a shisha/hookah in a Middle Eastern themed restaurant.
It is great that kiwis here have eachother's backs. We all have different roads to walk, different obstacles to try our souls. Some of the dark experiences that other vollies have to deal with...I don't I could handle. We all do what we can with our allotted tasks and God willing, you get through.
Anyway..
We talked up Colobus (the karaoke place we used to go from language school) to our new female friend so when we taxied out there, we were horrified to see it had reaaaaly gone down hill. Almost empty save for some seedy older guys and some hookers. I've had it with hookers. Truly awful karaoke going on...A guy was shrieking out 'What a wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong and it sounded like a cat was having its bones broken. How disappointing. My 'One Love' cover with Bwana D was little better but we belted out 'Man in the Mirror' well for a bit of laughter and applause. But it was a brief light in an oppressive dark of poor singing/poor song choice. We beat a retreat and had an early night. I suppose its good to actually to have a sedate night (for once) in Arusha.
Saturday morning I went for a jog with Bwana D. He wants to do the Kili Marathon with the wife and I. I have a lot of work to do. I'll blame the shisha smoking but I was rubbish. Panting, puffing sweating along the side of a busy road and across the 'river of dreams' AKA a trash filled local creek populated by locals washing their clothes and laughing at the jogging wazungu. But yeah, I have a lot of work to do...
We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing by a pool at the Arusha Coffee Lodge a beautiful resort set in a coffee plantation. It's a hard life. Got splashed by a mixed ethnicity group of kids doing bombs and playing 'baptism' games in the pool (a local Christian orphanage group perhaps?) I contemplated showing them what a bomb in the pool really was, but with my current MO I didn't want the caregivers to have me arrested as a deviant.
Took a late arvo bus home, nice and relaxed. Twas a great break from the Mosh. The wife was happy to see me a bit less edgy and a bit more chilled. Sunday, we met some friends and went to a local BBQ pit 20 minutes down the road. The wife had a vegie pizza. I devoured my own body weight in goat, chicken and other hapless creatures. Great times. I have a cool wife that lets me both go to Arusha on my own and be a carnivore when the cravings for prey get too much. Yay for my wife!
I wore the pink shirt to the BBQ that I bought for the 'pink' party in Arusha some time back. Hell, if you can't wear a pink shirt in Africa, where can you? I certainly can't wear it in Petone. No locals minded. But my combo of MO and pink shirt got some weird looks and laughter from a land rover full of wazungu that passed me walking home. Don't mind him, he's the local kiwi eccentric..Onto week 37 of 52.
(Would you let this man bomb your children in a pool?)
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